"I'm a derby manager," Bayer Leverkusen coach Robin Dutt had confidently predicted during the week. His sporting director Rudi Völler, buoyed by the side's decent showing at Stamford Bridge, had been even more bullish. "We lost last season, that's enough for the next few years," said Germany's best-loved bubble-perm aficionado.

Alas, Saturday's epic 4-1 home defeat against their bigger, less successful neighbours from Cologne showed that Dutt wasn't quite enough of a derby manager, and that Völler's prediction was off by a decade and a half. Instead of maintaining their fine head-to-head record at the BayArena, the Werkself (company team) lost their first game in 15 years on home soil against the club from the other side of the Rhine.

In one sense, it was a typical Köln game, the mirror image to last week's 2-1 defeat at Nürnberg. "We're either very bad or very good here, there's nothing in the middle," said the manager Stale Solbakken, who is slowly coming to terms with the extreme mood swings within the city and his dressing room. Lukas Podolski (two goals) and Milivoje Novakovic (one), in particular, combined to devastating effect on the counter, and despite wholesale changes at the back, the two rows of four protecting Michael Rensing's goal were almost impenetrable. Leverkusen, on the other hand, were so poor that no one even tried to come up with excuses. "This was beyond bad. I'm sorry for inflicting this on the supporters," said Dutt.

Süddeutsche Zeitung called it "a historic win"; "the best win of my life", was Novakovic's verdict. Even if you take away hype and emotions, the result still has the potential to go down as one of the more important three points in recent years – considering that Solbakken had become precariously close to be seen as the problem after a dodgy start to the season.

The idea of marrying his technocratic ways to Köln's ego-infested squad and the town's pressure-cooker environment is ambitious to say the least. The Norwegian desperately needed results to get the players to buy into methods that are unprecedented by the standards of his predecessors: a highly-disciplined zonal marking system all over the pitch. "I believe they think that we're practising tactics too much, but I feel that we need practise more of it," he revealed about the mindset inside the camp. "Too many players want individual roles in the team, rather than to do the necessary jobs for the group."

It wasn't necessary to point to the two strikers in that respect but Solbakken made sure to mention their names, alongside the wide midfielders Adil Chihi and Slawomir Peszko, who'd also done very well, for a change. The rather excellent Podolski naturally lionised the tabloid coverage – "Poldi humiliates Ballack" was Bild's predictably nuanced take – and also improved his chances in the national team, albeit in a rather underhand manner. Shortly before the break, he'd taken out his heir-apparent in the Germany side, the mercurial André Schürrle, with a nasty tackle. The referee Günter Perle must have been afraid of committing lèse majesté – inexplicably "Prinz Poldi" was let-off scot-free under the watchful eye of Jogi Löw. Everything might have changed at that moment but it didn't. No one would have talked much about the foul if the frustrated Schürrle hadn't mowed down Christian Eichner in the last minute and received his marching orders by the ref. "That's inconsistent," thundered Völler. "A joke!"

Podolski wasn't keen to discuss the matter in great detail afterwards but dismissed Völler's rant. "It was a normal foul," he said. "If Völler wants me to get a red, he should grab one and give it to me." Unfortunately, the German FA doesn't subscribe to the idea of vigilante justice. Schürrle, who was taunted by Köln fans on Sunday – they stuck up a big "thank you for the derby win" letter with a red card outside his apartment in Cologne – will thus miss next week's trip to the Allianz Arena, while Solbakken's valiant efforts to drag Köln into the 21st century will continue at home to the in-form Hoffenheim. The 43-year-old knows it won't be easy, especially in light of the fact that the dressing room's is traditionally about as tight-lipped as a police horse's rear-end. "If I have secret, I know it'll be in Express before my wife knows," said Solbakken, only half-jokingly.

Talking points

Terrible news of Germany's nascent twitter scene: @MichaelOenning, the loving, satirical take on Michael Oenning's buffoonish utterances, is bound to lose some of its cult appeal following Monday afternoon's dismissal of the 45-year-old Hamburg coach. The club was forced to swing the axe after Saturday's 0-1 defeat at home to Mönchengladbach, the fifth loss in six league matches. "It's pitch black for us," captain Heiko Westermann said after his sides's shambolic performance had left them bottom of the table and the butt of a very popular joke: "What's the difference between Hamburg and an Ü? The Ü has two points."

The board didn't find that funny at all, of course. "After many intensive talks in the two days after [the defeat], we've come to the view that this decision is necessary." Oenning, who is quite possibly too nice a man to succeed in this particular job, was characteristically good-natured about his dismissal. "I can understand why the club made this move in the current situation," he said. Former HSV player Rodolfo Cardoso will take charge for Fridays's tricky away match at Stuttgart, before the director of sport Frank Arnesen appoints a permanent successor. Dermot Drummy, the Chelsea reserve team manager, looks the logical appointment but Lothar Matthäus, newly relieved from his Bulgaria duties, will no doubt link himself by the time you've read these lines.

• Oenning's Waterloo shouldn't take away from the increasingly excellent work of Lucien Favre, however. Borussia Mönchengladbach's Swiss coach once again showed that he's a master at setting up a side. "The Foals" are well on course to be this year's over-achievers and will warrant much closer inspection in weeks to come.

• The other Borussia are having a more difficult time though. Two goals in as many minutes helped Hannover 96 to an unlikely win over the champions, who had led and controlled the match at the AWD-Arena until the 87th minute. "This cannot happen," said Borussia defender Neven Subotic, "because of five bad minutes, we're leaving here with a bad feeling." Manager Jürgen Klopp admitted feeling "the pressure" ahead of the home game against Mainz, when Dortmund have to win to escape the mid-table tristesse.

• The Bundesliga's penchant for Japanese players experienced an all-time-high on Saturday, when Wolfsburg coach Felix Magath put Makoto Hasebe in goal away to Hoffenheim. "Japanese [players] are reliable and good in all positions," explained the manager afterwards. Truth be told, Hasebe didn't exactly appear an insurmountable barrier before Roberto Firmino's goal to make it 3-1 five minutes before the end. The 27-year-old is a midfielder by trade, after all. Magath had been forced to rely on the reluctant stand-in when Marwin Hitz was sent off in the 81st minute for insulting referee Marco Fritz over the need to retake a goal-kick. The manager had already made three substitutions. "I said something but it wasn't a swear word," the keeper insisted later on, to no avail. Hoffenheim, meanwhile, are looking great under the stewardship of Holger Stanislawski, who's obviously managed to unlock some of the potential within the squad thanks to his more down-to-earth man-management style.

• Manuel Neuer's return to Schalke had dominated the headlines for the whole week and, if the banners in the stands were anything to go by, quite a few art lessons in secondary schools in and around Gelsenkirchen too. The 25-year-old keeper was variously depicted as a greedy so-so, as a lederhosen-wearing lady of the night and in an, ahem, unorthodox position at the feet of a red devil called Uli Hoeness. A hail of boos and jeers descended on the Bayern keeper during the match, but you wouldn't have heard much of it on TV. The Bundesliga remains world-class when it comes to making an exciting product sound and look ordinary – they film the game from the vantage point of migrating storks and turn down the stadium noise to a dull, ambient rumbling.

As it turned out Neuer had little to do while Bayern toyed with Schalke to chalk up their ninth clean-sheet win in 10 games (in all competitions). The search for more difficult opponents continues.